A BNE Exclusive Interview

Guwahati: The North East contributes 65 percent of the country's handloom production, and 21.65 percent of silk production; houses 50 percent of India's plant biodiversity, including 28 percent of the country's total bamboo area and 66 percent of India's growing stock. The region has the capacity to generate 60,000 MW of power which is yet to be explored.

Despite its enormous potential for industries and businesses, the region has been greatly neglected by investors. However, the Central Government has focused on the holistic growth of the region in the past few years and as a part, the North East Desk of Invest India was set up in 2021, the first regional desk of the country’s investment promotion agency (IPA).

Business Northeast spoke to the Lead of the NE Desk of Invest India, Dr. Geetima Das Krishna, who talked on  functioning of the agency and its aim to promote the region, facilitate investment as well as link the entrepreneurs to investors- both domestic and global.

Please introduce Invest India to our readers.

Dr. Geetima Das Krishna: Invest India is the investment promotion agency (IPA) of the country. Our role is to attract investment into the country and generate employment. Though the agency was set up in 2009, it has been reorganised 2014.

Invest India is a Section 25 company under the Companies Act, 1956. We work pro bono for the states.

Speaking about the structure, Invest India is under the aegis of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) of the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The government of India owns 49 percent of the shares; the remaining 51 percent is shared equally between the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and NASSCOM. Every state can be a 0.5 percent shareholder of the 49 percent of DPIIT; presently only 23 states are partners including a few from the North East.

How does Invest India function in bringing investment?

Dr. Geetima Das Krishna:  For the country, we are promotion, facilitation, and targeting agency; promoting India abroad and targeting investors to invest here. To explain simply, suppose a foreign investor or company wishes to set up a plant in India, Invest India would facilitate the entire process by hand-holding them from the day they start exploring India as an investment destination and at every step of the way throughout their journey.

The gestation period of an investment is usually very long. We facilitate the entire process to grounding the investment and aftercare.

The North East Desk has been operational for just over a year. Kindly throw light on the journey so far.

Dr. Geetima Das Krishna:  The North East Desk of Invest India is the first-ever regional desk of the agency, which has been operational since March 2021. Few of the large states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, etc have been historically getting most of the investments. However, the states of the North East have not been getting enough. Invest India intends to bridge the gap between the investors and the left-out states and regions.

We showcase the potential of the region, handhold investors in site selection, grievances redressal, and interaction with regional stakeholders. Our desk has members from all across the region; experts who know the local culture and language, and have a good understanding of the requirements of the region. 

Since we started operation amid the pandemic situation, we have held several virtual meetings. The NE desk is different from the central Invest India team in that we are not only targeting global investors but also domestic investors, for apart from a few like Tata and Reliance who have selectively invested in the region, other conglomerates are yet to make their mark in the NE states.

Our desk has started by emphasizing the focus sectors of every state; like all states of the North East have immense potential in the Agri-Horti sector. There are around 30 Geographical Indication (GI) products in the region including varieties of rice, kajinemu from Assam, Chak-Hao commonly or black rice from Manipur, bhutjalakia from Nagaland, bird's eye chilli from Mizoram, kiwi from Arunachal Pradesh, queen pineapple from Tripura, large cardamom from Sikkim, memang narang or wild orange from Meghalaya to name just a few.

While Agri-Horti and tourism are the traditional focus sectors, there are some interesting emerging sectors in these states. Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh are exploring film and media, as such Arunachal is getting Bollywood stars to promote their locations; again Meghalaya and Assam have come up with Electric Vehicle Policy; Manipur is going big in the IT sector and the government has even set up an IT Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in over 10.85 hectares of contiguous land with loan from the World Bank and is looking for investors. Manipur’s IT sector is looking to employ over 2000 local youths.

Additionally, the Ayush Ministry has been established recently and interestingly the North East has a substantial percentage of the country’s medicinal plants. Meghalaya even has traditional methods of healing and the villages have healers who even now use these methods, using plant paste and others for various diseases and even fractures. The system is very organised as well and Invest India is working to promote these as well.

The wellness industry and medical tourism can do wonders in the NE, especially to cater to the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Myanmar. Tripura, Manipur, and Meghalaya are actively working on this sector. And Invest India plays an active role in targeting investors for them. We have made a database of the big companies who can make investments and are in talks with many.

Each state ideally has an IPA of its own. How does Invest India coordinate with the state government and its IPA?

Dr. Geetima Das Krishna:  The North Eastern states are actively seeking investment. Tripura did an Investment Summit in 2021 of which Invest India was a part. We held road shows in Mumbai and Delhi, and a mega Destination Tripura-Investment Summit in Agartala, in which about 80 MoUs were signed amounting to a total investment worth Rs 2 thousand 564 crores.. The Northeast Desk is following up on a number of these MoUs to ground investments. These include varied sectors from biogas to food processing, tourism, education, etc.

Assam is attracting the highest number of investors followed by Manipur and Tripura; Nagaland has identified around 500 CSR projects to attract investors.

Invest India is the bridge that connects the investor to the respective state government. Our nodal agency is the Industry and Commerce Department of every state.

With regards to state IPA as mentioned, apart from Nagaland other NE states are yet to have a functioning investment promotion agency although it is essential that each state has one. For when an investor comes to us, we will connect them through the Industry Department along with the target department for investment. This is a long tedious process, and often the officials get transferred in between which delays the process further. In the case of having an IPA, the coordination among the concerned departments is simplified. The IPA becomes the nodal agency.

Successful states like Punjab, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and others have their own investment promotion agency.

Invest India has signed an MoU with Meghalaya’s Investment Promotion Division (IPD) to set up their IPA. The state has started Invest Meghalaya with three experts and two permanent members. It is just got operationalized.

The Assam Cabinet had notified an IPA called Invest Assam and has even allocated a budget this fiscal, but it is yet to be operational. The members of the IPA will be experts from the private sector, headed by a government official. 

In the North East, Nagaland is the only state to have a fully functional IPA, the Investment and Development Authority of Nagaland (IDAN). We are working closely with IDAN and will be hosting an Investment Summit on July 4, which will be attended by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. A good number of investors are expected and Invest India will facilitate many business-to-business and business-to-government interactions and a bankers’ conclave during the event.

A good number of investors are expected and Invest India will facilitate many business-to-business and business-to-government interactions and an investment session during the conclave.

We have submitted the concept note for an IPA in Manipur.

Apart from these Invest India NE desk does Capacity Building workshops connecting emerging sectors of the states with the central ministries. We educate the states on submitting projects to avail the benefits of Central Government schemes. Workshops were conducted in the food processing, and pharmaceutical departments.

Does IPA also connect the entrepreneurs to the market?

 Dr. Geetima Das Krishna:  Invest India is also the executing arm for other ‘Make in India’ initiatives which include One District One Product, India Industrial Land Bank, the National Single Window System, India Investment Grid, Startup India, etc.

 Under One District One Product, we conduct buyer-seller meets where sellers of the region are connected with buyers from outside, we also connect them to e-commerce platforms.

 How do entrepreneurs and others connect to Invest India?

 Dr. Geetima Das Krishna:  Invest India usually conducts programs, and pitching sessions whereby the state government brings in the entrepreneurs who are associated with the government agencies. Additionally, they can connect to us directly through LinkedIn or send queries by mail.

For investors, we have the portal https://indiainvestmentgrid.gov.in  whereby states that need investors for any project can upload details of the projects along with the requirements. The details are made globally available for all investors, including for CSR projects. In fact, Nagaland proposes to attract a lot of investment through these CSR projects. They have identified around 500 CSR projects which will be uploaded to the India Investment Grid.

Similarly, details of the industrial parks and lands can be uploaded to the India Industrial Land Bank (IILB), a GIS-based portal with all industrial infrastructure-related information such as connectivity, infra, plot-level information on vacant plots, and line of activity, and contact details.

The National Single Window System (NSWS) is a digital platform for the guidance of investors to identify and apply for approvals as per their business requirements.  The Know Your Approvals (KYA) module supports information across 32 Central Departments and 17 States. Nagaland is already integrated into the system and its SWS will be launched on 4^th July. Tripura has its own which is in the process of being integrated into the central system, and Meghalaya is in the process. Assam’s state single window system will also be integrated soon, which has been delayed due to some compatibility issues.